


Leave You Longing For

by KatiKitten



Series: We Used To Be Friends [9]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatiKitten/pseuds/KatiKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel's confused over the boy who's been in her life for years, and the one who's been in her life for a few hours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave You Longing For

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry it's taken so long for me to update this! The weekend was... special. Today's the first day I've had time to write, and my brain was broken for a few hours. I wrote 400 words, and then stared at the screen for four hours.

There are some benefits to actually having friends. They would chase you into the bathroom after your boyfriend broke up with you in order to date two cheerleaders at once.

Even Mike and Matt had frozen Noah out for a few days, most likely at Santana and Brittany's direction, since Brittany and Mike were dating. Sort of dating? Rachel wasn't entirely clear on the details of that one.

Which led to another benefit to actually having friends: they would tell their boyfriends to punish your ex, so you weren't the only one hurting.

But the best part about being friends with the best dancers in the Glee Club is that when you decide to do an impromptu performance of "Hope It Gives You Hell", directing it at your idiotic jackass ex-boyfriend, they're right there with you, dancing with you and and letting the guys, who are also your sort of kind of friends, whirl you around the room and showing your horse's hind end of an ex-boyfriend what exactly he's missing out on now that he has broken up with you, which, once again, is his own fault since he decided that he would rather date two cheerleader skanks than you.

Predictably, Rachel got a lecture from Mr. Schuester after the song about not taking Glee Club seriously. She would never admit it, but she honestly started tuning him out. She took Regionals seriously. Anyone who thought otherwise was an idiot of the highest calibre. Rachel Berry had a competitive streak that ate other people's competitive streaks for breakfast.

She really, really hated losing. So they weren't going to lose Regionals. She was determined.

She didn't really see what using a song with "Hello" in the title had to do with taking Glee seriously and helping them win Regionals, but if that was what Mr. Schue wanted, that was what he would get.

And she would find the most kick-derriere song that had "Hello" in it that existed.

That was another thing that friends came in handy for. If she was unable to find a song on her own (unlikely, but possible), she could ask Quinn for help.

***

There were a few things that Rachel appreciated in a possible romantic entanglement. A good voice (but not better than hers, for obvious reasons, though that possibility was highly unlikely in the middle of nowhere rural Ohio), confidence, and a nice smile were the top of the list.

Oh, and they must be able to not only deal with, as Noah used to call it, "The Rachel Berry Crazy Ass Experience", but accept that facet of her personality and embrace it. If someone could not handle her as she was, then they could leave. What you saw with Rachel was what you got, plain and simple. Rachel Berry would extinguish her inner light for _no_ man. There might not be a lot of suitors interested in pursuing her, but that did not mean that she would change to suit the ones who were there. Rachel Berry was a force of nature, and she was determined to remain true to herself.

Also, Noah had once promised her that he would deliver a quick death if she ever considered changing to please someone else. They had been seven at the time, but she still remembered the promise, and she had obeyed that direction since. He had also promised a quick death to anyone that ever raised a hand against her, which had prompted her to kiss his cheek, which in turn prompted him to scrub at his cheek and loudly proclaim that she had infected her with his girl germs, before looking around to make sure no one was paying attention and kissing her cheek back.

...Of course, he had _also_ promised that one day, they would grow up to be Power Rangers, so maybe she needed to not count promises made in the single digit ages...

The young man she had met at the library had a great voice and knew how to use it, but Rachel knew she was better. But their voices would blend quite well, and she hoped to sing more duets with him. He had oodles and oodles of confidence, even if it was more than a little bit bordering on arrogance. And by bordering, she meant full on arrogance. But in this day and age, finding a teenager with actual confidence and not merely putting on a confident persona was a bit of a rarity, so she would be willing to put up with an overblown ego. Besides, if anyone could recognize confidence mixed with arrogance, it would be her. And his smile was pretty. He had such nice teeth! He must have spent a few years in braces for those teeth. His smile would not exactly be labeled as "kind", but... well, two out of three is _not_ a bad deal, and of the three, the kind smile was the one she could live without.

And most of all, _he_ was interested in _her_. _He_ was pursuing _her_! (Though she was not pleased with his assessment that she was lacking the emotional depth as Barbra Streisand. He would obviously not know emotional depth if it bit him on that very nice nose.) 

In spite of all the qualities she could tally up in his favour, as she went to sleep that night, _Noah_ was the one she thought of instead of Jesse. And Noah was the one she dreamed of -- though, once again, she would _never_ admit to that -- instead of Jesse.

As Noah would say, "Balls".

This meant that the weekend would see Rachel having a girl's sleepover to get advice. She would let Quinn ask Santana and Brittany to come, and Rachel was certain that Kurt would come as soon as she mentioned "facials and mani/pedis". Perhaps Kurt would be interested in inviting Tina and Mercedes, though Rachel would not hold her breath on Mercedes accepting the invitation. Tina, possibly. Rachel didn't know the Asian girl very well, but Rachel and Tina had never fought or anything.

...And Noah would be the topic of her thoughts until then, Rachel just knew it...

Once again, " _Balls_ " was the only word that would adequately sum up this conundrum. So... _Balls_.


End file.
